


Minor Adjustments

by Ylevihs



Series: How Not to Fall [38]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Farm Headcanons, M/M, Rebirth Spoilers, References to Suicide, Retribution Spoilers, brief references to canon typical violence, canon typical paranoia, poor planning skills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylevihs/pseuds/Ylevihs
Summary: Failing to plan is planning to fail
Relationships: Charge/Steel (fallen hero), Herald/Sidestep (Fallen Hero), Ortega/Chen (Fallen Hero)
Series: How Not to Fall [38]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1327892
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Minor Adjustments

There was a certain flair that came with having a looming ultimatum. A suitably villainous feel to it. Fulfill my demands before the end of the night or the Mayor gets it. Get to the bomb in time or the school bus of full of puppies goes kaboom.

Very Saturday morning cartoon Villain.

Very fitting for Regina.

A certain quiet love for cat and mouse games provided, of course, that she was the cat.

Richard finished rinsing out the coffee mugs and set them aside to dry, trying not to let his hands shake badly enough to drop anything. Ricardo’s plan was stupid. Monumentally stupid. Riddled with holes and barely clinging together. Too reliant on circumstance and hope and lucky timing. The same way he fought. The sort of plan that only a very reckless and very brave person could have made. Richard had told him so before he and Chen had left for the evening. Off to have whatever argument had been brewing all night between them.

“So your plan is to risk all of our lives by being stupid and bombastic, in that order, and then rely on sheer dumb luck for everything else?”

And Ricardo answered, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and smile verging into the manic panic of someone very dangerous indeed. “Wouldn’t be dumb luck, Richard. I’d be relying on you to make it work,”

He groaned. “Even worse. I’m less reliable than luck,”

Ricardo ignored that. “You’ll do it?”

“Of course not!” it clawed its way up his throat, slicing open his windpipe and bleeding fear into his words. “I will die before I go back there, Ricardo,” he tried to give it the weight it deserved. A fairly easy task with his body going to shivers and mouth running dry, staring in plain and open terror at the table in front of him. He felt more than saw Daniel flinch. No reaction from Ricardo. A stronger one from Chen than he was expecting, but all internal. All hidden inside his head where he was still barricaded.

But any death was better than going back there. Any. A lie. One his mind was happily convinced was the truth. Any death. Nanovores or the Catastrofiend ripping him apart or being burned alive under a thirty story building while Godzilla rampaged outside. Drowning in alcohol or strangling slowly in his bathroom while Daniel. While.

Don’t think about Daniel. His thoughts were too strong and too bright and trying to force their way into his head, laced with worry and tender concern and I won’t let you die I won’t let them take you I.

Why couldn’t he have died during Heartbreak? Imagine the problems that would have solved. Winking out of existence there on that sidewalk and there wouldn’t have been a second stay at the farm. Just a tragic loss of another vigilante. At least Ricardo’s guilt and mourning would have been valid. There wouldn’t have been the surgeries or the. No Mad Dog. No chance for him to ruin Daniel’s life. If he had really tried, could he have made Daniel drop him like he’d wanted to? There wouldn’t have been a reveal that he’d been the one to break his knee. No quiet, intimate nights. No. Hand. On him. Hand on his knee.

“We can make it work,” Ricardo gave a gentle squeeze. It took too much effort not to shove the hand off of him but it felt like it weighed two and a half tons. Pinning him to the couch. No escape. “Senator Carmichael and Regina still have to meet up one last time to finish their deal. It would be completely within Mad Dog’s standard to attack the hotel the deal was going down in. Corrupt warmongering Senator after all. Cut the lights, blow the sensors, in the confusion you kidnap Regina instead of the Senator. The Rangers are called in to save the day, just like when you took Mia hostage,” As if it were all cut and dry. “We take her back to our Headquarters to have her kept in safety while waiting for her people to come get her,” her people. Not the Special Directive. Not Regenes. Her people, as though they had any say in the matter. “And that’s when we can make our attack,”

“I did not kidnap Miss Ochoa,” a small point, but one he felt he needed to make anyway. “We were having a civil conversation,” Ricardo waved it away.

“Sure. Just like you’re not really kidnapping Regina, you’re trying to take the Senator and get confused. Play it up, make it seem like once you’re free and clear, you’re disturbed to see that it’s not Carmichael,” Richard let his eyes roll.

“You know she’s going to be armed, right? Heavily guarded? And prepared for people like me,” Richard tapped his temple. The likelihood that Regina had new and exciting medications designed to block psychics was high, especially since she knew he was out there in the city. Especially since she was trying to provoke him. “Prepared for people like all of us. Because even if that part does work, which it won’t, it’s not the Rangers who will be coming to save the day, it’s going to be them. Her people. My people. The Special Directive,” Ricardo opened his mouth and Richard put up a hand to stop him. “But let’s say they do call you in, and it’s not Lady Argent who takes the call,” because that was going to be a cluster if anything was. She didn’t know that it was Richard who had attacked her in the first place, but she was unlikely to be helpful when she found out. She was more likely to help kick his ass and turn him in.

If she didn’t kill him herself.

“We have a stage fight that you win. You want to take Regina back to Rangers HQ to have her wait for transport. And then what? When they show up to take her home. Keep her there? While we head off to attack the Farm? Who’s guarding her? What does that nice young lady at the front desk tell the Special Directive Operatives who come to pick her up? No.” he shook his head. “The way that plan actually ends up is, I cut the power to the building and try to nullify any sensors or dampeners. I try to get in to where the Senator and Regina are now on high alert and their guards are ready to shoot. I walk into armed and waiting bodyguards. I get shot by one of Senator Carmichael’s expensive weapons. Regina unmasks me and I’m taken back to the Farm. I’m tortured for her pleasure,” the frown on Ricardo’s face deepened. Let him frown, then. His plan was terrible and risky and Richard had no problem saying so.

“Besides all of that, I don’t even know if I could kidnap her. Not even counting how I’m walking into a trap, I would have to somehow not have a complete mental break down and panic attack when I see her,” it was likely. Highly likely. Richard felt his blood pressure rise each time he saw a photo of her. Felt his fingers twitch. Felt an urge to take her skull in his hands and drive it against the pavement. But god he could remember the fear that shouldered into his mind whenever she entered a room. Marrow deep and stronger than any force of will he had ever managed to muster. The guilt and shame and revulsion with himself brought on by seeing her. He’d have to find a very special spot between violence and paralytic shock.

Richard’s knee had started bouncing, slightly jostling Edith who finally jumped off the couch to nose against Ricardo. “But okay. Magic happens. I get her and you win the fight and save her. Another miraculous escape by me. Why would she agree to come back with you, when she knows that you’re working with me? She knows that she can’t trust the Rangers,”

Beside him on the couch Chen had shifted again, standing and taking his coffee cup in his hand. He’d been silent for the entire conversation, offering neither agreement nor argument. Waiting. Analyzing them. There was a background rumble, the sound of distant thunder, as his mind worked. Swirling what remained in the cup before drinking it.

“I think,” he started, and the words were careful. Steady. “That you’re right, Richard. Anything you do in these next few days is going to be playing into her hand. And anything you wait to do gives them more time to move against you,” you, Richard noted. Not we. Which was fair. “And that plan has too much that can go wrong with it,”

Ricardo snorted, leaning back, mild annoyance playing around on his face. “You’re just saying that because you didn’t hear this dumbass’s suicide by cop plan,”

A slight change in the stance. Another distant and unsettling rumble in his head. “That doesn’t matter. Whatever that plan was can’t really move forward now,” he gave Richard a slow look and Richard held it as best he could. Trying as much as he could to indicated with his face that, yeah, no, that plan had been scrapped ever since Charge had kicked his ass.

“And besides. They still know that you two at least,” Richard gave a halfhearted wave between Ricardo and Danny. “Are helping me. So even if they don’t come for me right away after Regina leaves, they come for you. Bombs and car accidents, villain attacks. Tragedies but they come with the job, don’t they?” he glanced at Chen out of the corner of his eye. “They might not know how you tie in,” did any of them? Richard and Chen himself didn’t seem to know either. “But they might want to wipe the slate clean just for appearances. Take out Rangers headquarters during a particularly well-staffed day,”

“You think she’d attack civilians so openly?”

Richard returned Chen’s earlier, slow look. Taking his time with it to see if Chen would realize how stupid that sounded. His mouth narrowed into a grimace. There it was. “She’s never cared in the past,” Richard said, just to seal the point. “And there would be plenty of people to put the blame on, Mad Dog included,”

There was a brief, pause. “Then we keep thinking,” Daniel said, chewing his lower lip. “I’m not letting them hurt you again, Richie. These sorts of people cannot keep doing these things without any consequences. We can’t just sit by and wait for them to attack. We have a responsibility to–,” he sounded perfectly heroic, as though spot lights were going to flicker on and illuminate him from below.

“A responsibility to do what? Get yourself killed for me?”

“To get you justice.” Firm and. Of course he believed that. Really believed it. Ah beans, did he sound that naïve too? After all, wasn’t that what his own goals had been? To expose the truth of what the farm had been doing. And to what other end than making them face judgment for their actions? “We have three days. We can make them count,” and that, more or less, had been the end of the evening.

Ricardo’s plan had been shot down for the moment and they were back with nothing. Less than nothing.

And three days to maybe make a move.

Three days to hopefully not get killed. Or worse.

Behind him in the apartment Daniel was moving silently, getting ready for bed. Thinking while he worked.

His thoughts were brighter and quicker than usual. Anger and concern and trying to come up with some sort of plan. Some of that anger was directed at Richard. For how he kept speaking about himself. For being so defeatist. The majority of it was aimed at the Farm and Regina; the things they had done and were doing. The plans he was thinking up relied too heavily on Regina having any sort of human decency, feeling any sort of remorse. Hoping that she could be reasoned with, somehow. Made to see that what she was doing was wrong. Interestingly. Very, very interestingly, there was no such allowance extended to the Senator. The politics of it bothered him more. Less. As though he had lower standards of expectations for politicians than he did for other people. It almost would have made Richard snicker, finding out that it was one of the very few jaded places in Daniel’s heart.

Instead he turned off the sink and rested his hands on the counter top.

What the hell was supposed to do?

He couldn’t run. And there was no where he could go to hide. Not when they had figured out how to keep a bead on him. Not with her here in the city with him. Not with her really, truly watching him. He fought back his dinner again. Watching his every move and knowing and oh, god, how long had. Water back on. Cold and sharp enough to splash against his face.

“Richie?” quiet and hesitant. A tone reserved for people on building ledges. Daniel was floating up behind him, interrupted in getting ready by Richard. Oh, he’d been loud. Louder than he meant to. Ah beans. “Do you still have that guy working for you. The modded driver?” Daniel’s thoughts were swirling now, almost a gale force stewing between his temples, thoughts whipping by too fast to get a good read on any one thing. Something coming to a head, but still heavily clouded and amorphous. Slipping out of Richard’s reach each time he went to grab a passing thought.

“I do,” he allowed. Richard had done his best to keep Boris out of anything to do with the Rangers. He was a good card to have in his pocket, but Richard didn’t want to risk Bo’s life or freedoms any more than necessary. Mad Dog was a professional, and Mitzi hadn’t made contact with her drinking buddy Bo in a long time.

“Do…,” a long pause. Longer than normal. Daniel didn’t always need to gather his thoughts but it was clear he was plucking a select few from the hurricane. “Do you think Regina has any idea about him?”

“I’d rather not get him involved. I’d rather not have any of you involved,” which Danny didn’t respond to, leaving Richard’s words hanging useless in the air. “But I don’t think she would. Even if she knows I’m Mad Dog, I’ve been trying to keep him out of things lately,”

“I noticed you weren’t making as many get aways in cars,” it. Oh. Huh. It was meant to be teasing. Mad Dog hadn’t planned on fighting Charge in that parking garage. If he had, there was a good chance he would’ve had Bo waiting around a corner for him to make a quick escape. “How good of a driver would you say he is?” and the plan was forming in Daniel’s head. The real question was how good of an actor Boris could be. “Do you trust him?”

“I trust him to trust my money. And he’s the best in the city,” Richard wasn’t even sure if that was bravado or not. Bo had made some impressive moves.

“What if. What if as she was leaving she got into a minor accident? Nothing bad. Nobody getting hurt of course,” Daniel was quick to assure but Richard could follow the gusts now. See the motion of the wings and the direction they were going to turn towards.

“But leaving the car un-drive-able?” a gentle prod. Small prompt. If he were on the ground Daniel would be squirming. Maybe two of the tires popped at the same time. Maybe the car went over a bump too quickly and without enough clearance.

“We could,” Daniel trailed, hoping that he wouldn’t have to voice it. That Richard could pick it up from his thoughts and save him having to say it out loud. He wanted to suggest that whatever ride Regina called to replace her car and driver could be. Aha. Commandeered. And replaced with Bo as the driver. Boris. Who could, in Richard’s experience, out drive any other mod he’d met yet. Could keep it steady and professional, like the best personal drivers. And then outmaneuver should the need arise. Show up in style. A nice semi luxury car, blacked out windows. Sent by the corporate office perhaps. “Take her to Mad Dog’s base,” because Daniel trusted Richard not to hurt her. Not to kill her, at least.

It was good one of them at least trusted that.

They could leave her at the base with Bo keeping guard.

It was tempting. Dangerously so.

“I think. I think we might be able to work with that Daniel,”


End file.
